NFL kickoff: Brady vs. Manning, headlines and picks

Here's a look at the top storylines and big matchups from around the nation as we near kickoff on another Sunday of NFL football:

The Big Buzz: Manning vs. Brady

Tom Brady and Peyton Manning have a long history together. They renew their rivalry Sunday in Foxboro. (AP File Photo/ Charles Krupa)

New England's Tom Brady and Denver's Peyton Manning have faced each other a dozen times in their NFL careers, and each instance has had the feel of a heavyweight title fight. The Patriots and Broncos clash in Foxboro on Sunday, and expectations are high for Brady-Manning 13 - especially since this could be the final time the aging stars share the same field.

Talk about two football lives forever linked, arm in arm, bound together by their success, different as they might be. Quarterbacks. Leaders. Pitch men. The two biggest stars in this country's most popular sport. One more time.

And if facing off against an equal and opposite force brings out the truest measure of excellence in an all-time great athlete, as it did for Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, then Manning and Brady should also be grateful their respective journeys have been so intertwined.

But some would argue that it's no longer the same. That Manning lost something off his fastball while he was out last year with a neck injury, and that the finish chipped away when he left Indianapolis for Denver this summer.

• Players will once again wear pink accessories throughout October for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Cardinals wide receiver Larry Johnson, who lost his mother to breast cancer, got the annual practice started in a meaningful way Thursday night.

Who they're picking

• Sports staffers at USA Today are unanimous on eight games this week, including forecasted wins by the Packers, Giants, Bears, Saints and Texans. Five of the seven panelists expect Brady and the Patriots to handle Manning and the Broncos.

Sean Payton's value, sort of like Peyton Manning's last season, has been established in absentia. At 0-4, the New Orleans Saints are a wreck, a shell of what they are capable of being because of Payton's loss.

"They're just not as consistent as I'm used to seeing the Saints. And that's what people have to realize about the NFL, the difference between 4-0 and 0-4 is minute," Dungy said. "A dropped ball here, a delay of game penalty there, something just a little bit off here, a miscommunication. I think that's where Sean was so good, he didn't allow those 'death by inches' details to be overlooked."

Cleveland Browns running back Trent Richardson (33) escapes a tackle by Buffalo Bills linebacker Mario Williams in the first quarter of an NFL football game Sunday, Sept. 23, 2012, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

"Oh yeah," Richardson said on a conference call with the New York media. "If we put a hat on a number, just cover them up, I think we can get yards on 'em."

"If (Trent) looks on tape and he thinks he sees come candy, come try and get it," Giants end Osi Umenyiora told reporters in New York.

"The thing that he’s got to learn is that in this game, talking doesn’t mean anything," Kiwanuka told the Newark Star-Ledger. "You got to go out there and prove it to every team every single week. So if he proves it, I’ll shake his hand and tap him on the butt. If he doesn’t, I expect never to hear from him again."

• Former Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann ripped into Dallas quarterback Tony Romo during a radio interview this week. Theismann made the comments following the Cowboys' 34-18 loss to the Bears on Monday NIght Football, in which Romo tossed a career-high five interceptions:

"What hit me last night is, Tony isn't really that good," Theismann said. "Just because he wears a star on his helmet -- we all think that people who are Dallas Cowboys, 'ooh they're wonderful and ooh they're terrific, ooh they're the next Roger Staubach' or whatever the heck they want to say. They're full of bologna."

"I don’t feel threatened to lose my job at all, anyway," he said Thursday to a group of reporters, as an equally large media cluster circled Tebow. "It’s no different whether it’s Tim or (Mark) Brunell or Kellen (Clemens), it doesn’t change.

Sanchez must step up now before it's too late -- and it starts on ESPN's "Monday Night Football" against the undefeated Houston Texans (4-0). Any game could be his last as New York's starting quarterback.